Thursday, November 12, 2009

At the same time, the church's position has angered some of its conservative allies on social issues, has prompted questions about whether public relations is its real motivation, and put the church on the spot over how far it will go on similar legislation on the state and federal level.

. . .

Some of the church's conservative allies in the gay marriage battles, however, call it a setback. The two new ordinances make it illegal to fire or evict someone for being gay, bisexual or transgender.

Such legislation robs employers and landlords of their rights and gives legal ammunition to judges sympathetic to gay marriage, said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the conservative Family Research Council.

"It's disappointing, and I'm fearful that it reflects in part a reaction to the attacks they came under after Proposition 8 -- an effort to bend over backwards to exhibit tolerance toward homosexuals in some way," Sprigg said.

Still, conservative stalwarts the Sutherland Institute and the Eagle Forum have vowed to fight any statewide anti-discrimination measures.

On Wednesday, Gayle Ruzicka, leader of the Eagle Forum, said Salt Lake City's new ordinances are "very discriminatory."

"We expected the church not to have a problem because they've been carved out of it. The rest of us have not been carved out of it," she said. The ordinances "discriminate against people who have personal religious beliefs."

Please provide a name or consistent pseudonym with your comments and avoid insults or personal attacks against anyone or any group. All anonymous comments will be immediately deleted. Other comments are subject to deletion at my discretion.

disclaimer

all posts are solely the views, opinions, and facts expressed by the author of project mayhem and do not necessarily represent the opinions and views of blogger, google, the united states of america, any governmental organizations or leaders, claremont graduate university (or any of its centers, departments, or faculty), don knotts, chuck palahniuk, brigham young university, any ancient, medieval, modern, late-modern, or post-modern philosopher, the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, president thomas s. monson (or any other member of the lds hierarchy), god, jesus, allah, el, yahweh, krishna, mohammed (peace be upon him), brahmann, vishnu, baal, satan, asheroth (or any other deity), the ericson family, the kool-aid man, or any past or future version of myself.